It’s time for another quick review round-up, even though I haven’t written much, as I don’t have much in the pipe for a while. Mostly fiction this time.
On the personal front, I’ve changed day jobs, I’m working on my master’s thesis, and I have a new baby. It’s busy, but I don’t think that’s forever. My writing output may tick back up in the next couple years.
Here are the reviews I’ve written for the Winnipeg Free Press since the last round-up. Fourteen of them! (Actually I’ve written 16, but one hasn’t been published yet and one actually seems to have disappeared into the ether, so I’m going to look into it later.) This time I thought maybe I’d order them from best to worst (in my own subjective opinion).
I generally don’t choose to accept a review assignment if I don’t have some reason to think the book could be good, but I do take risks with new authors and subject matter, which may or may not pay off and yes, there were a few duds, with the bottom three being particularly weak. But let’s focus on the positive and highlight some of the stand-outs.
I’ve become a fan of Cixin Liu, a literary giant in his native China, but new to the English-reading world, and after the success of the Three-Body series on our side of the pond, American publishers are combing through his back-list to keep the momentum going. I’ve reviewed two titles in translation over the last couple of years and both stuck with me, but I rank Ball Lightning (which I read last fall) much higher than Supernova Era (read this spring but not listed below since the review won’t come out until closer to the novel’s publication in October). Both are rather grim, truth be told, but the former turned it to better literary purpose, perhaps because the latter was written in an earlier stage of Liu’s career.
Starlight is Richard Wagamese’s final, technically unfinished novel (though it falls only a chapter short). Wagamese was one of Canada’s Indigenous literary luminaries, and it’s my first time reading this author who was unfortunately taken too soon.
Cory Doctorow is an old favourite of mine, but while I’ve rarely been disappointed, Radicalized surprised me with its impact and with how politically on-point it is, which is particularly difficult with a collection of four novellas rather than a single, cohesive novel. Four urgent stories about our present moment of crisis. Doctorow, as always, is best read fresh, so don’t leave it on your nightstand too long.
I’m sure you’ve all watched Guy Ritchie’s second Sherlock Holmes movie. Where can you get your detective fix, now? I can help you with that.
In keeping both with his to-the-point writing style and the cultural expectations of the time, Conan Doyle did not much expound on Sherlock’s early life or psychology, and the detective himself rarely spoke of such things. The potential for interpretation is broad. . . .
While Robert Downey, Jr. portrays somewhat of a wise-cracking action hero, Sherlock‘s title character (played by Benedict Cumberbatch) is both intensely intelligent and coldly indifferent to the human element in his puzzles. . . . “I can’t be the only one that gets bored.”
Read about several of the most interesting film, television, and book properties to re-imagine the great detective recently in my article, The Many Faces of Sherlock Holmes.
Politics:
Climate Change Deniers Set School Policy, Forecast Weather
Post-Fukushima, Nuclear Policies in Flux Around the World
“Climate Skeptic” Thinktank Asked to Reveal Secret Funders
Act on ACTA: The Internet War is Not Over
Canadians Want Legislation to Regulate Sex-Specific Abortion
Animal Welfare:
Texas Pastor Kills Neighbours’ Cat
Why We Will Boycott “The Grey”
Environment:
Tipping Point: Amazon Basin Becoming a New Carbon Source?
How cute is this?
He doesn’t mention it, but this Dr. McNinja fan art is a reference to the Charles Yu novel, How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe (which I reviewed, here). Hurrah for inside jokes.